


His Mother's Aim

by jalendavi_lady



Series: Winry And Roy series from fma_fic_contest [12]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Canon - First Anime, Community: fma_fic_contest, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-22
Updated: 2010-02-22
Packaged: 2017-10-13 05:29:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/133483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalendavi_lady/pseuds/jalendavi_lady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young man heads off to war. First anime.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Mother's Aim

_In war, truth is the first casualty. ~Aeschylus_

***

The Eastern Region went flying by outside.

Elias stared out of the train window, thinking of what was surely to come.

It felt odd to be in this strange place between safety and war zone.

During his childhood he had never thought he would be here.

He and his brothers had all three inherited their mother's aim and their father's strength and grown into both even as they watched the pair treat the veterans of the last war.

Rambert had made it clear early on -- very nearly before they were in school -- that Bedside Manner would forever be as foreign to him as the border with Drachma.

And Elias...

His mother had yelled at him, demanding if he knew what he was the sweet hell doing when he'd announced he was enlisting.

With reason.

He had grown up in an automail shop, and by the time he'd turned nine it was incredibly clear that he would never be able to have gotten involved in the family business even if he was the oldest son instead of the youngest.

He had been terrified of the screaming, unable to stand the sheer amounts of _pain_ that was inflicted with surprising regularity and even more surprising matter-of-factness by his parents and, by the time he was in school, his oldest brother.

Urey had the will to commit almost-casual temporary cruelty in the name of eventual healing, a skill required for automailers. When their father had died in an influenza outbreak, Urey had stepped into his labcoat as if it had always been his place.

Rambert had already been enlisted for a year when Elias decided there wasn't much of anything else he could do, even with the rumors of war.

Elias did know he had a skill his country desperately wanted.

He'd first served as one of the guards on the military headquarters' roof, and there had been twice when he'd had to kill someone in defense of others.

Both times, he knew his target had not had the time to know pain before the end came.

It was meager comfort.

***

When they passed through Risembool, he thought he saw his mother standing there. She couldn't have known he was there, but she'd always had a way of _knowing_.

She couldn't have known his job, either. Officially, every sharpshooter in the Amestrian army was regular infantry, and so far as the military was concerned it was best if the civilians kept thinking that.

After they passed through the familiar mountains, it was the matter of an hour or two until they reached the end of the rails.

Even before they were ordered off of the train, he could hear the screaming from the hospital tent nearby.

***

Dear Mother,

I am in the war zone now.

I hope some day you can forgive me for the betrayal you felt when I enlisted.

You were right.

You have my love now and always,

Elias Rockbell

**Author's Note:**

> In the original version, the next-to-last two lines of the letter were redacted. The html tags allowed here will not let me duplicate this formatting.


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